'No trespassing signs' taking over Perdido Key beaches. Local visitors want them gone.

A group of Escambia County surfers and surf fishers are organizing an effort to call on the county to remove "no trespassing" signs that line the sandy areas of the beaches on Perdido Key.

For the last several years, private property owners on Perdido Key have put up "no trespassing" signs along their property lines on the beaches of Perdido Key, especially near public beach access points.

Local real estate developer and avid surfer Gary Holt has started to organize fellow surfers to ask the County Commission to update its sign ordinance to not allow the signs on the beach.

"People come here from all over the world, and you want to take pictures of your kids playing in the sand, and then this sign is behind your kids," Holt said. "It's ridiculous."

Holt said he's worried the growing number of signs dotting the beaches will hurt tourism.

"They're going to go to Orange Beach and Gulf Shores," Holt said. "Why would you put up with this? You're going to come to see it one time, and you're not coming back."

Holt is organizing an effort to rally local surfers and fishermen to come to the public forum at the Escambia County Commission meeting on Dec. 8 to ask the commission to revisit its sign ordinance.

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Holt said he doesn't want to start an argument about whether the beach is private property or not, but only seeks to regulate how the private property notices are posted at the beach.

Holt argued the number of signs along the property lines crossing the beach is ugly but also could pose a risk to endangered sea turtles.

"Obviously, turtles are going to run into that," Holt said, pointing to a line of signs at Perdido Beach Access No. 1.

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Local surfer Keith Hall said he's been surfing on Perdido Key since 2011, and there were occasionally private property signs, but they started sprouting everywhere during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Local surfer Hans Stroker said he has seen EMS vehicles at Perdido Key Beach Access No. 1 have to maneuver around the no-trespassing signs to respond to an emergency further down the beach.

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Escambia County Senior Natural Resources Manager Tim Day said sign regulations were changed in 2015 that repealed a prohibition on signs on the beach.

Day said for several years, it was only a few properties that put signs in the sand, but with the growth of online vacation rentals in recent years, the number of signs has proliferated as beachfront landowners have sought to mark their property.

"In the last several years, we've just been seeing them start to pop up all over the beach to where I would agree, especially with a lot of them being installed into the sand, that it's getting to a point that we may have to look at an official regulation," Day said.

Day said the signs could pose an obstacle to a nesting sea turtles and also provide perching locations for birds who prey on the endangered Perdido Key beach mouse.

Day said the property owners could be liable under the Endangered Species Act if sea turtles are in danger.

"If a turtle comes up and interacts with a sign pole and then decides it doesn't want to nest and turns around and goes back into the Gulf, technically, that's a violation of those protections," Day said.

Day said other communities have dealt with signs on the beach in different ways. Walton County, which had its own battles with private property rights on the beach, has banned signs on the beach.

District 1 Commissioner Jeff Bergosh, who represents Perdido Key, said he's been contacted by Holt and agrees something needs to be done to address the issue.

"I don't like the signs that are right next to each other all the way down the beach, connected with chains and ropes. It's ridiculous," Bergosh said.

Bergosh said he didn't know what direction that county would go in, but he thinks the county should limit it to one sign on the beach.

"I want to reform the way we do 'no trespassing' out there because it looks terrible," Bergosh said.

The public form will be held at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 8 at the Ernie Lee Magaha Government Building in downtown Pensacola.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: No Trespassing signs on Perdido Key beaches upset surfers, visitors